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William Grace I
William Grace is a former focal character of Saving Grace. The patriarch of the Grace family and founder of the Grace corporation, multiple stories were focused around him during his thirty-six year tenure as a character. Biography Backstory Distantly related to the founding settlers of Graceland, young entrepreneur William Grace decided to establish his base of operations there following the successful acquisition of patents and a subsequent windfall. At twenty years of age, he had married socialite Elaine Cho and they had their first child, son Vernon. Over the next twenty years, the Grace Corporation grew to become a multimillion-dollar empire and William a titan of industry, while he and Elaine welcomed three more children into the world: daughter Cecilia, son William Jr., and daughter Rosalie. On a vacation in 1979, tragedy struck when nine-year-old Rosalie drowned, hardening William and causing a rift to form between him and Elaine. By 1980, Vernon had moved away from town to forge his own path, William Jr. was away at boarding school, and Cecilia was the light of her father’s eyes. 1980 - 1987 In 1980, the Morris Company established their own headquarters in Graceland, and their competing businesses drew William and Hartman Morris into a heated and disdainful rivalry. William forbid Cecilia from interacting with Hartman’s son Timothy, who developed a crush on her, and similarly expressed disapproval towards her older boyfriend, Robert Fitzsimmone. In 1983, Vernon returned to town and joined the family business to rebuild a relationship with his father. Meanwhile, as William’s relationship with Elaine continued to deteriorate, William began an affair with the modest Jean Summers, bribing Hartman’s sister Robin Morris to leave town upon her discovery of the tryst. In 1984, however, the truth came out when Jean discovered she was pregnant. Elaine subsequently divorced William and left town ashamed to live with the college-bound William, Jr. William and Jean were married and later welcomed their son Cecil to the world in 1985, and the Grace Corporation continued to grow larger with a team including William’s trusted lawyer Dominick Landers and businessman Chuck Taylor. However, after Grace’s corporate secrets were unearthed by a scheme of Hartman Morris involving Taylor’s daughter Beezus, William coldly dismissed the man, forcing him to leave town and swear revenge on the corporate elite of Graceland. Further, despite William’s protests, Cecilia chose to marry Robert Fitzsimmone; their relationship was strained until William witnessed their love throughout Cecilia’s pregnancy, and by the time their daughter Elaine Fitzsimmone was born in 1986, had come to see Robert as another son. 1988 - 1995 William and Jean welcomed daughter Wendy in 1988 amidst further personal and professional success. Furious at Grace’s thriving despite his earlier plots to foil them, Hartman invited Robin back to town to seduce and destroy William; this led to a covert affair and, as William began to branch the Grace Corporation nationally, led William to engage in a series of trysts as his industrial status grew and grew. Robin would publicly reveal her affair with William in 1990, devastating Jean and leading her to divorce William. The family suffered further trauma as scorned former employee Chuck Taylor returned to town, exacting his revenge in a spree of murders that included Robert. Despite the personal loss, the grief drew the Grace family closer together. In the business sphere, William and Hartman’s two-man battle developed into a four-man competition as Jason Forrester and Friedrich Teutul settled their own businesses in Graceland, diversifying competition dramatically. William’s new rivalry with Jason was complicated as Vernon fell in love with Forrester’s sister, Mackenzie Forrester; the two welcomed William’s first grandsons, Toby and Brock, before leaving town to raise a family away from the business intrigue. William would go on to fall in love with young attorney Hailey Dooku, culminating in a brief marriage that ended after William relapsed into another bout of trysts; following this, he sought counseling for sex addiction, and set out to become a more dedicated and supportive father. He and Hailey remained close friends, and she was named godmother after a one-night stand led to William and Jean’s third child, daughter Hazel. 1996 - 2003 Dominick Landers retired in 1996, and William enlisted William, Jr. as his new personal attorney and fixer. As a result, the father and son developed a closer relationship, and Junior faced his first trial when young vixen Raquel Blair blackmailed William into marriage. Junior outmaneuvered Raquel and had their marriage annulled, but a lapse in judgment led to William and Raquel welcoming son Ryan to the world in 2000. Raquel demanded William marry her as a condition of having Ryan in his life, which William reluctantly agreed to, leading to a passionate yet antagonistic union. Around the same time, Cecilia and Timothy began seeing each other, to the disgust of William and Hartman. After Hartman paid Morris model Tracey Islander to break the two up following their engagement, Cecilia left town to find herself, leading to a tearful goodbye with William, whose only children remaining in Graceland were toddler Hazel and infant Ryan. William would contend with Andy Gros, an ex of Raquel’s, as he began plotting revenge against Hartman for driving his daughter out of town. Fortunately, he uncovered Hartman’s affair with the much younger Barbie Celtic; taking a page out of Hartman’s playbook, William would hire stripper Donna Crusoe to seduce Hartman, and orchestrated events so Barbie would discover this herself and reveal Hartman’s infidelities publicly. Hartman’s longtime wife Lisa Bathe would divorce him while William’s role in unearthing the affairs remained unknown, having gained the upper hand in his rivalries. William and Raquel faced legal troubles when Andy Gros turned up dead after a second blackmail attempt against Raquel; the death was officially ruled a suicide. The duo were suspects the next year as Rupert LeBaum, who had been trading corporate secrets between the four corporate entities of the town, was killed. William and Raquel suspected yet protected each other despite both of their innocence, and their loyalty helped them avoid any charges. William’s son Cecil, college-bound, returned to town following boarding school graduation and began dating Dawn Casper, daughter of the low-class ‘Sludge’ Casper. William disapproved of the relationship because of the negative reputation of the Casper family, and ‘Sludge’ disapproved because he didn’t trust the wealthy Cecil’s intentions, and the lovers subsequently fled town. Throughout these events, William also meets with novelist Meaghan Baker to help pen his biography. 2004 - 2009 William made a final attempt to remove Raquel from his life following the two murder investigations, enlisting the help of divorce attorney Carter Hayden to retain custody. Raquel, however, sabotaged William by beginning an affair with Carter, leading to a divorce that granted her sole custody and a substantial settlement, after which she and Ryan left town. Afterwards, William began a relationship with Lisa that developed to spite Hartman but blossomed into true love, culminating in Lisa’s pregnancy. William was additionally joyed when Cecilia returned to town and, for Lisa’s sake, accepted her new relationship with Timothy. William married Lisa as his daughter Cecilia married her son Timothy, and their daughter Lola Grace was born in 2004. Vernon and Mackenzie returned with their children Toby, Brock, and daughter Verona to witness the family events, and Toby decided to stay with William and Lisa as he attended college in Graceland. William found further happiness as Junior married Grace employee Missy Drace, creating a period of great personal joy. Unfortunately, this joy was subsequently replaced by intense trauma – Chuck Taylor returned to Graceland to continue his revenge against the corporate elite, and kidnapped Lola at the climax of a subsequent crime spree. The ensuing police chase culminated in Taylor’s car flying off the road to the presumed death of both Chuck and Lola, emotionally crushing William, Lisa, and the emotionally fragile Cecilia. Cecilia, unable to handle the stress, divorced Timothy and left town, while the devastating grief drew William and Lisa away from each other, leading to their own divorce. Moving back into business to cope with his losses, William sets up a magazine with help from journalist Layla Holloway and is seduced into marriage by Debbi O’Day. Meanwhile, Hartman and Lisa remarry following Hartman’s discovery that William is to blame for his affairs coming to light in the past. In revenge, he brings William’s daughter Wendy – bitter at having been sent away to boarding school – to town, who sells her inherited shares of Grace stock to Hartman before moving to stay with her mother Jean and half-brother Donovan Summers. William and Toby forged a close relationship, Toby being a source of comfort to help William cope with the myriad of personal and professional tragedies he was facing. A woman obsessed with William from a one-night stand during one of his bouts with sex addiction arrives to town under the alias Gina Paquin and finds employment as his assistant. She attempts to poison William and kidnap Debbi, but her blackmailed associate turns against her, and she is later arrested by Carmine Harper, vowing that she and William are tied together forever before being incarcerated. William would go on to divorce Debbi when she was unwilling to have a child together, and found conflict once again with ‘Sludge’ Casper when Toby and Jade Casper expected a child following a covert relationship, welcoming Rosalie II in 2008. William supports Toby and Rosalie II despite his disdain for the Casper family, and further supports Toby as he falls into alcoholism, and is saddened when his grandson skips town to avoid his responsibilities to Jade and his family. 2010 - 2015 Wendy returns to town to celebrate Hazel’s thirteenth birthday; seeing how supportive of a father William had been to her, attempts to reconcile with a reluctant William. The two reconcile at Hazel’s bequest, and Wendy helps William get revenge on Hartman Morris for his earlier manipulation of their relationship. Toby returns to town to confront Brock and his marriage to Jade, but, still unable to accept his responsibilities, William helps Toby seek counsel at a rehabilitation facility for his alcohol abuse. Another woman from William’s past, Dana Crook, meets William to reveal that they have a child together following their one-night stand in 1994. William meets with his daughter, Katilyn, but with Dana’s support, decides not to reveal his relationship to her. William promises to support Katilyn should something happen to the ill Dana. William subsequently hires Wendy at the Grace Corporation following her permanent relocation to town and learns that Cecil and Dawn Casper are expecting a child together. Inspired by his reconciliation with Wendy, William invites the two to live with him at the Grace mansion and hires Cecil to work at the family business as well, and in 2013, Cecil and Dawn name their son William Grace III. Meanwhile, having discovered Katilyn’s paternity, Hartman invites her to an internship at Morris, inadvertently allowing her and William to get to know each other better. Chuck Taylor makes another return to town with the help of Lola ‘Taylor’ – William’s long-presumed-dead daughter – who had been raised to assist him in his plot for revenge. After swindling corporate money from Grace and Morris, Chuck Taylor finally meets his end when he kills Dawn and Cecil, in response, fatally stabs him. Realizing who Lola ‘Taylor’ is, Cecil and Detective Carmine Harper allow her to go free without revealing to William or Lisa who she truly is. Yin Hu-Yan, a businessman who inadvertently aided Taylor in his swindling, is pursued by William before turning up dead, with William as the prime suspect. When it is uncovered that Hu-Yan is alive and his death was staged with help from Hartman, William is cleared of all charges and helps Cecil mourn. With William once more holding the upper hand after clearing murder charges and Lisa having left him upon learning of his actions with regard to Katilyn and Hu-Yan, Hartman brings Meaghan Baker back to town to write a more scandalous book about William. Unbothered, William hires Katilyn at the Grace Corporation following her internship with Hartman and continues connecting with her while also serving as a mentor and father figure. William and his fixer, Junior, continue work on a secret project that stokes the curiosity of Hartman, who fails to crack the code, as William tearfully bids goodbye to Hazel as she leaves town to attend college. William meets his granddaughter Pandora Grace following Cecil’s marriage to Lucy Novak and enters into a scheme with Harvey Gaines to take down Hartman following his recent strikes against him. Harvey, however, works for a similar mission on behalf of Hartman, and the two are investigated by FBI Agent Lilo Coulsen when Harvey disappears. When DA Roxanne Huxley attempts to charge William for his actions against Hartman and potentially against Harvey, he begins a feud with her, including bringing her ex Aiden Munroe back to Graceland in effort to discredit her. When Harvey turns up unscathed, William’s name is once more cleared, to Hartman’s displeasure. 2016 & Death Having retained their close relationship throughout the years, Hailey agrees to remarry William at his urging despite questioning his persistence. Hazel returns to visit William with her new boyfriend Damien Morgan, the son of Elaine and businessman Jack Morgan, which leads Elaine to return chasing after him. William and Elaine, for the first time since their divorce, reunite and make amends with one another. Subsequently, it is revealed that the secret project William and Junior were working on was the execution and dispersion of William’s will and estate, news which comes to light following William’s unexpected yet peaceful death of natural causes, devastating his family. As his widow, Hailey is left virtually financially supported for the rest of her life; Vernon, Mackenzie, and Sharada return for the funeral and permanently relocate to Graceland following William’s will naming Mackenzie as CEO of the Grace Corporation; Raquel and Ryan return to mourn, with Raquel expressing regret for keeping the father and son apart; Hazel, who had discovered William’s death, mourns her father before returning to school; and Cecilia, Elaine Fitzsimmone, businessmen Luke Drace and Dominick Landers, Debbi, Robin, and Dana return to pay their respects. Hartman hires lawyer Jim McGrath to exploit the will for his own gain, but he is foiled by Junior, the executor of the will, who names that William’s last testament was that any unclaimed children of his would be provided a piece of his estate and shares of Grace stock. Legacy Toby, regretful for missing the funeral but confident that William would’ve wanted him to stay in his rehabilitation program, would preserve William’s legacy when Mackenzie attempted to sell the company to Richard Sapphire, assuming the role of CEO with help from Katilyn, who learns of her paternity following Dana’s passing. In line with William’s love of his family, Toby privatizes the Grace Corporation and makes it a priority to keep the family in the business, being supported by Wendy, Katilyn, Hazel, Brock, and Ryan in executive roles. It is later revealed that Gina Paquin, like Dana Crook, bore a child of William Grace: Danielle Wilder, who has since married into the Sapphire family. When an older Lola returns to town, Timothy and Jade’s urgings convince her to connect with her legacy as a Grace.